The Entreprenuerial Mindset Trap
I recently redecorated my home office.
It was an undertaking that had me flying high… at first. I was super excited to amplify my space. I bought a new desk chair (love). A new rug (obsessed). And the pièce de résistance, a new desk. Picture a beautiful gray wood desk with a convertible stand-up desk top and drawers for days. It's a beautiful desk that came with an extra special surprise.
That gorgeous desk arrived in exactly one million pieces. (Guess I missed the assembly required part.)
Now, I'm not one to be deterred from a mission so I decided to put it together myself. Despite cynical looks from my loving husband, I set to work sorting a million tiny screws and wood panels. How hard could it be?
It was hard. Really freaking hard. But I kept going. After 3 hours of pouring over 17 steps of directions, trying not to lose a million tiny little screws, applying copious amounts of wood glue and kneeling over with a 45 y/o bad back, my efforts were rewarded... with a loud CRACK!
Spoiler alert, it wasn’t my back.
The entire side panel of my new beautiful gray wood desk with the cool stand-up desk top and drawers for days... was cracked. I sat there stunned, on the verge of frustrated tears. I stared at the ruins of the project I had worked so hard on for the better part of my Sunday. I tried to push the crack back together. No go. I toyed with sealing it up with some more wood glue. No dice. So what now? Cry, scream, set the whole freaking thing on fire and call it a day? I thought about it. I visualized the raging inferno that beautiful gray wood would create with the flick of a match. I went dark for a minute, friends. But then, I took a deep breath and reminded myself this project was about elevating my office space. If I lost my sh** over this desk, how would that help? If I sat there in defeat and decided oh well, guess I never should’ve tried to do this... how is that helping me elevate this space and my mindset about this new space?
It’s not.
I took a deep breath and decided not to choose violence. I dusted myself off and got a drink of water. I called the company for a new panel and put in a call to the handyman. I conceded defeat to my husband who wasn't keen on the project in the first place. The company will send me a new panel. The handyman will take it from there. He'll save me more frustration and probably a trip to the chiropractor to realign my old lady back. I'll still get my desk, but I'll have to wait a few days.
Problem solved.
It’s a lot like business, right? Tiny little pieces everywhere, some of them fitting together seamlessly, some taking a bit more muscle to fit in the right holes. And sometimes, it all still comes apart no matter how much wood glue we have on hand.
Mindset is a piece of the business puzzle that most entrepreneurs struggle the most with. There is so much mixed messaging online around mindset, it can be hard to know what to believe. Manifest this, know your worth that. Spending too much time on any social media platform will make your head spin. Consuming too much Insta-garbage will have you buying into every new mindset trend deemed "the next big thing".
Despite all the noise, we have to remain ruthless about our own mindset. The stories we tell ourselves matter. Some days I'm good at keeping my entrepreneurial mindset in check. Other days I fall down the rabbit hole and question my entrepreneurial existence. The internal dialogue we have with ourselves is a direct indicator of how successful we will be.
I'm curious, what do you do to keep all the tiny little screws from scattering? What ways have you found work best to keep your entrepreneurial mindset in check?
